Shortys Liquor

Make mine a triple.

Sydney's premier supplier of corporate beverages sees online sales triple in new website's first three months.

Extending a great reputation for service into the online space

According to the drinks industry publication 'Market Watch'...

31.4

Billion

Bottles

...are sold each year.

The question for drinks retailers is how to stand out from the crowd. Shorty's Liquor has done just that since 2004 - by focussing on the corporate market and providing exceptional service to blue-chip businesses, catering companies and iconic Australian venues.

A no-compromise approach

Having built a valuable brand through great, personal service, Shorty's Liquor turned to webqem to protect that reputation online and create a best-of-breed eCommerce experience.

Working in partnership with Shorty's, we mapped out the strategy and approach to the website relaunch and integration with existing systems. Extensive customer research helped us understand the unique needs of the business-to-business offering, focussing on the corporate customer.

Complex delivery rules to support corporate customer needs
Go above and beyond the 'standard' online retail experience
A faster online experience than the competition
Future-proofed, responsive design for multiple device types
Tools and functions to support the corporate buyer
Integrated with existing back-end stock systems

Making sure our online experience would match our customer's very high expectations was absolutely key at the outset of this project. We wanted a premium experience that would make purchasing online as easy as possible. It's clear we absolutely smashed that goal, with online sales accounting for 30% of our business within just 16 weeks of launch.

Dave Short, Owner

Crafting a solution

Extending the existing, warm Shorty's branding online, our primary design goals were to ensure effortlessly usable function across a very wide range of screen sizes...

...with tools like a quick re-ordering pad for corporate users – and a streamlined, clean interface that not only let the products speak for themselves but supported a super-fast response time for the site.

A vintage release

Like the finest wines, a truly great web solution needs careful planning, the best ingredients and the attention of artisans. Six months from project inception to launch, the website smashed all the project goals, and then some...

Integration

Near real-time integration (just one minute update intervals) between the website and Shorty's stock database keeps everything streamlined and up-to-date.

The system includes two-way communication for orders, customer information and catalogue management.

Responsive

A fully responsive design with multiple breakpoints provides a great experience on any device - all from just a single version of the site. From smartphones through to tablets and desktops, the best use of available screen real estate makes finding the right product easy.

The site even caters for a extra-wide desktops for corporate users with big monitors.

Deliveries

Complex delivery rules are handled with ease - including options such as; before 10am, pick-a-day, Morning or afternoon delivery and cold-delivery.

Performance

Hosting delivered by the team of Magento certified technicians at Veeps, using performance tuned hosting stack and caching modules.

Optimised and tweaked for maximum speed, the site outperforms all of its major competitors - by as much as 24%.

The Shortlist

A custom-designed 'shortlist' function provides a way for regular corporate users to re-order their favourite products with the minimum of effort.

The finer details

Adobe Commerce (Magento 2)

A feature-rich eCommerce platform built on open-source technology that provides online merchants with unprecedented flexibility.

PayPal & eWAY

PayPal and eWAY provide multiple payment options for users to choose from.

Temando shipping plug-in

Postcode and suburb validation, management of multiple shipping methods and rules.

HTML5

Building to the latest in web-standards provides an efficient, accessible platform that's search-friendly and ready to extend in the future.

CSS3

CSS3 Rich styling provides transitions that enhance the user experience, without resorting to complex scripted solutions or flash.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics not only lets you measure sales and conversions, but also gives you fresh insights into how visitors use your site.

100% Proof

The post-launch results have been spectacular - both in terms of raw numbers and direct feedback from customers who've found the online service remarkably easy to navigate and use - probably in no small part due to the way the site reforms itself to make best use of the user's screen-size.

Online sales increased three-fold within the first quarter after launch - and at the same time the average sale grew 200%.
The site is considerably faster than all its major competitors (by a minimum of 13%, and as much as 24%).
Online sales accounted for 30% of the business just 16 weeks from launch.

"The layout of the website is very easy to use and the ordering side of things is great... it is a very well designed website and I am able to navigate around it very well."

Claire Lindsay NTT Data

"The online ordering system you guys have recently implemented is awesome. Has definitely increased the ease of ordering and now we love you even more! Thanks."

Victoria Gill Havas Australia

"The new online ordering makes buying great quality beverages from a great company as easy as clicking on a link... Just an all round great service."

Andrew Seebacher Rabobank

"We're delighted with the ease of ordering that the Shortys website provides. The webpages are easy to navigate and we now have visibility on the cost involved with a particular order before placing it, which makes managing our weekly purchases spend quite simple."

Joe Rossi The Keystone Group